Elegant wrasse

Taxobox | name = Elegant wrasse


image_caption = Elegant wrasse, (male above)
Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Actinopterygii
ordo = Perciformes
familia = Labridae
genus = "Anampses"
species = "A. elegans"
binomial = "Anampses elegans"
binomial_authority = Ogilby, 1889The elegant wrasse, "Anampses elegans", is a wrasse of the family Labridae, found in eastern Australia and north eastern New Zealand at depths of between 2 and 35 m. Its length is up to 29 cm.

Coloration is light brown with a faint blue spot, one per scale, above the lateral line and seven faint golden stripes following the centres of scale rows below the lateral line, a faint dark stripe from the front of the snout to the eye with a fainter continuation behind the eye, and the lower half of the head pale silvery. There is a yellow-orange spot on the operculum and a blue bordered spot behind this. The caudal fin is bright yellow. The upper lip is distinctly flap-like.

References

*
* Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, "Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand", (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8